March 10, 2016
sewandsowgardens
sewing progress
Since my last post in November 2014, I have been busy constructing Hexagons for the crazy quilt project I’m working on AND making 9 patch squares for my first ever quilt. The instructions I’m using I downloaded from the web in 2006. They are complete but if I have an issue I’ll have to research where the heck they came from. (I have done that but don’t recall exactly where they came from right this minute.)
Today I finished the twelfth square and will go on to figure out how to cut the sashing and sew it around all the squares.
Meanwhile each evening I stitch on the individual hexagons for the crazy quilt. I’ve lost a lot of my skills since I last did this kind of hand stitching so these first attempts have got a lot of mistakes. While I’m correcting most of the glaring glitches on the pieced quilt I am leaving all the faults from this stitch relearning on the hexs.
fresh start
Here’s the first block for a new crazy quilt (it’s been a long while since I have started one). The colors are inspired by the spectacular autumn colors this year. I found a couple of bushes in the yard that repeat the larger landscape.
The challenge will be the shape and number of blocks planned. Both based on a book by Jennifer Clouson, Foolproof Crazy Quilting.
cruising Lake Ontario 2012
Soon we will be off on a 2 plus week cruise of Lake Ontario on our sailboat Watercolors. Just trying to batten down the hatches here at home before we hoist sail. Our salty dog Ernie is sitting this trip out at the Greece Stone Ridge Tal Mahal pet center. He will soon be 11 and he says he’d be just as happy snoozing stateside and passing up the anxiety ridden crossing of the lake.
Today I have been cleaning and stowing the birdbath, cleaning and emptying the fountain, and making sure that most of the gardens are watered well one last time for who knows how long.
The pie garden and the oval bed in the front yard will be receiving timed watering but the rest of the plants on this sandbar are gonna be relying on mother-nature for rain. So far this summer she’s been really stingy.
I’ll try to post updates as we visit some of our favorite haunts around the lake.
GBBD
Again thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this bloom day on the 15th of each month.
Above is a plant not known to be hardy here in Rochester so I decided to just put it in a pot for the summer. Long story short-pot too small-plant bigger than planned. So I’m watering sometimes twice a day waiting for a break in the heat wave to plant it in the ground. I love the color! It’s so close to the color of the benches I repainted last fall.
One of the reas…
One of the reasons that I haven’t posted to this blog in so long is that there are changes word press has made to the method of posting. the older I get, the more hateful change becomes. i think I understand now but who knows.
The other reason is that earlier this spring I decided that hardly anything could really be different in the same little garden year after year. Ha! Now 2012 is happening and it is indeed different. So I’m gonna just start from now and record the summer doldrums and hopefully figure out how to insert some photos along the way.
One of the reas…
One of the reasons that I haven’t posted to this blog in so long is that there are changes word press has made to the method of posting. the older I get, the more hateful change becomes. i think I understand now but who knows.
The other reason is that earlier this spring I decided that hardly anything could really be different in the same little garden year after year. Ha! Now 2012 is happening and it is indeed different. So I’m gonna just start from now and record the summer doldrums and hopefully figure out how to insert some photos along the way.
Nearly spring 2012
Back again after an uneventful winter and a warm late winter over all. we spent the month of February near Orlando Fla. It was difficult to get enthused over the ‘village’ and the area in Central Fla. Our home away from home was stellar for a manufactured place. the community seemed to be not a tight village but had a couple of different factions at odds over monetary problems. Surprise, huh?
So now we are home again and enjoying the warm late winter. it’s easy to explore the garden and cheer on the early bloomers. however its hard to best the gardeners south of the Mason -Dixon line. So far I have found a couple of lone crocus’ surviving from when we first began gardening this yard and failed to realize that the squirrels and chippies would feast on the bulbs.
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October wrap up
Just as in September, October has been a waiting game due to lots of rain: 5.5 inches thru today. So far I’ve managed to clean and stow all of the garden decorations and have cut back about two-thirds of the perennials needing it. I’ve either taken cuttings or repotted the plants in the containers and already know that some will not survive til spring. (Oh well, nothing ventured).
I’ve not pulled the last of the swiss chard because the last stalks and leaves are so darn pretty. Maybe next year we’ll actually eat some. Meanwhile I’m still fiddling around with the scarlet runner beans. I’ve harvested the last of the mature pods and they are drying out in the 3 season room.
scarlet runners with cooked kidney and black beans
drying scarlet runners
I’m trying to overwinter the Lysimachia I used in one the container pots. This particular variety is said to be hardy to -15 degrees F. I put it near the furnace water-vaper exhaust.
Lysimachia 'Walkabout Sunset'
The lone holdout in a container is the Brugmansia below. I can’t remember the variety I got in 2010 and over wintered for this year. They are always late to bloom here in western New York and true to form here’s the finale. I’ll take cuttings again but not ask Ken to lug the entire monster into the basement.
Brugmansia in October
Finally as I emptied the containers I brushed off, scraped and sanded the garden bench/planter box and repainted it. I’m always freaked by the beauty and boldness of the periwinkle blue garden ‘stuff’ seen in the catalogs; so I got a couple of samples of paint that I thought were pretty close to periwinkle and proceeded to paint. What do you think?
repainted garden bench
I like it so much that I’m searching around for more to paint. Ken thinks shutters. I don’t know, it might be overkill.
Sew and sow gardens 